


Chain of Command

by Davechicken



Series: Kylux - Fluff & Angst [127]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-11 05:11:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8954923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Davechicken/pseuds/Davechicken
Summary: Hux doesn't know what to make of a man who is outside the chain of command, but what's more important in the long run? Is how Kylo Ren sees him.





	

They said it was lonely at the top, but Hux had known no other life. His whole existence had been devoted to one thing, and one thing alone: _progression_. 

It was a tangible thing. A metric you could measure. Happiness seemed transient and mutable, but power and influence and rank were forever, if you did it right. 

He’d stepped on many fingers on his climb up his career ladder. Only when he had to, but when he had to, he would do it. There was no room for mercy or sentiment if you wanted to succeed. You were either soft and mushy, and died with no one knowing who you were, or… you steeled yourself. You fired yourself in the kiln of progress, and you sharpened your points to hook into life as you launched yourself ever upwards.

‘Friends’ were fine, but they never came close enough to hinder him, for a reason. ‘Colleagues’ were resources, and ‘subordinates’ even more so. He attempted to foster a reasonable level of fear and respect in them, and then…  


Well. You couldn’t fraternise. You just… couldn’t. Not when you might have to order anyone aboard into certain death for the Greater Good. Not when you had to evaluate all officers fairly for their own career paths. Not when you had to be able to say ‘jump’ and have jumps made, with no question.

There was no room for personal conflict of interest, not in the Order, and not in his life.

Which was why Kylo Ren had been utterly… confounding. 

Not superior. Not _inferior_. Not even, really, parallel. He was some unknown Other that had no place in Hux’s world, much like that mystical Force, which supasseth all understanding.

This dark streak on the edges of Hux’s vision, like a blot on his retina he couldn’t unsee. He marred everything he touched by not being _right_ , and not being _part of the Divine Order Of Things_. 

And he annoyed Hux even more because he wouldn’t do the decent thing and properly behave as if he were above (as he wouldn’t do Hux’s preferred thing of below) him in the metaphorical food-chain.

No, he acted like he ate the air, instead of food. Which maybe he did, because Hux didn’t see him unmasked for _years_.

And yet, they’d somehow… found common ground. Over those years. 

As Kylo had never bowed to Hux, Hux had never bowed to Kylo. Instead, like twin suns they had spiralled around one another, trading gravity and light. He’d found in Kylo someone indifferent to his own career, who had no vested interest in seeing him fail. He gained nothing by his demotion or death (unlike an underling would), and had no need to curry his favour for his own means (not that Hux did show favouritism, but that didn’t stop people trying). 

The fresh perspective on him was… enlightening? He was seen as a _person_ as much as his rank. He was seen as his sense of humour, and duty, and strategic mind. He was seen as someone who could sit and snipe at the new high-flyers, or the latest holo. Who could discuss things that had _very little to do with work_.

Interestingly, Hux found Kylo to have more conversation in him than he’d have expected, but then… he _had_ been an ex-diplomat and ex-Princess’s son. Whilst the Political Issue was best left undiscoursed, there was a wealth of galactic information inside of Kylo Ren’s skull, and rather a lot of intriguing life experience. 

They’d accidentally become friends, which was utterly bizarre. They’d somehow decided that even though they violently (and regularly) disagreed, that they’d rather disagree with one another than with anyone else. 

Other people just didn’t have the verbal sharpness not to blunt under Hux’s force of will, and took his bluntness for rudeness. He even saw officers wince at his commands when the casualties were predicted to be high, or hesitate to press buttons when weapons needed discharging.

Anyone who did that around him was swiftly re-educated.

He saw the same hesitation in Ren, when the plans for his super-weapon were first unveiled. It left a strange taste in his mouth at the time, because he’d normally make sure his underlings bought into the necessity. But with Kylo… he valued his opinion, even if he thought sentiment was pointless, here. He’d had to learn how to cope with Ren’s disapproval, and the odd sensation it provoked inside.

When they finally found each other’s arms, it was… strange. They’d been sitting together, watching one of those ridiculously contrived war films, and Kylo’s arm had stretched behind him. 

A single gesture, an offering.

They’d been dancing too close, and too far, for far too long. 

Hux turned towards him, and wondered if it was simply that there was no one else? But then he saw the little wrinkle of his nose, and he realised it was oddly endearing. All of him was. From his dogged mispronunciation of words, to his strange defences of non-Human life-forms, to his odd little tics and the way he looked _at_ Hux. Hux, not the uniform. 

The way he’d paid attention, and all those tiny gestures (gifts, when he was away; remembering his name day; bringing him things he’d said he’d never tried). The way he knew who Hux _was,_ and shown Hux, who hadn’t known fully himself, before, because there’d been no need to be anything but officer.

Hux smiled, and turned to kiss him. It was slow, and slightly awkward, but he enjoyed it all the same. 

He could get used to that.


End file.
